"Uniforms of the Brunswickers" Topic

I'm new to whole Napoleonic thing and I've already begun to gather a fare collection of books on the period and uniforms. One thing confuses me however. The Brunswick Germans in particular the Leib-Battalion had the famous black uniform with the skull and cross bones symbol on the shako. Yet it appears if one of my uniform sources is correct that the other Brunswick units in the Pennincular campaign were dressed in the typical British Red coat and the white trousers. Is this correct or were the other Brunswickers also in black uniform in the Penninsular battles?

You might be mixing them up with another German unit. The Kings German Leigon KGL, they were dressed the same as Britsh regulars.

Cheers Neil T

Brunswich contributed troops to a number of different units.

As Max stated the KGL taken from exiles, contained a number of Brunsickers. In fact by 1815, a number of KGL companies had been reassigned to Brunwick Bns.

In Spain the Brunswick Light troop specialist formed the Orel Jagers which wore the uniform that the Leib Bn later adopted.

The Waterloo Brunswick Army included a single Lieb Bn with the flowing plume. The Advant garde also had a single Bn in a Gray uniform with upturned hat.

The Light Bns had a tapered plume as did the line Bns.The plumes were blue and yellow with sequence different for Lgt and Line Bns. Both wore black and had Bns in various colored facing colors.

Yep Maximus I was getting them confused with the KGL. Thanks for clearing things up. Also Rudy thanks for the extra information. I'm thinking of buying the Perry 28mm Brunswickers for The Sword, the Bayonet and the Lace variant of TSATF which I've just gotten intrested in. The Brunswick Jagers sound like a good unit to use for a skirmish game. The Peninsular Campaign it the area I want to base my battles on.

I picked up a beautiful book this week titled "German Napoleonic Armies Recreated in Color Photgraphs" it is color photos of German re-enactors as well as other countries at the 180th Aninversary of Waterloo in 1995. Great pictures! Not only are there the German units in the book (Austria,Prussia, Saxony) but photos of the British and French units as well. For those interested the ISBN code it is 1-86126-265-5. It appears there are an entire series of these books of Napoleonic re-enactors. A very nice source for us wargamers wanting to get the lace right.

To follow up Rudy's comments, the Brunswick Oels Jager Battalion was usually divided up with individual companies attached to British brigades to provide additional skirmishers, similar to the way the V/60th Rifles were divided. As the years went by in the Peninsular, the Brunswick jagers had to accept former prisoners and deserters of German origin. Many of these were not the best soldiers so desertion rates were higher than in earlier days when the battalion was composed primarily of native Brunswickers. There is an Osprey book devoted to the Brunswickers which should give you even better information than you are getting from us.

Jim

whitemanticore, there is an excellent website on the Brunswickers at:

link

Wow! I am just impresses with the amount of resource material on this period. Thanks rmaker.

rmaker, that is a great site! Thank you very much for pointing that one out!

In the Peninsular War, the Brunswick-Oels Jaeger Regiment consisted of two distinct and separate parts:

The main part consisted of eight light infantry companies, which were attached to 7th Division under General Houston (a largely light infantry formation which included another interesting foreign unit - the Chasseurs Britanniques). These eight companies were armed with muskets and were uniformed in the 'classic' Brunswick style, in black uniforms with collars, shoulder straps and trouser stripes light blue and cord braiding and buttons in black.

The second part consisted of six (?) rifle-armed companies, which were detached to boost the skirmish line of infantry brigades in the same manner as the 5/60th Rifles. These companies wore dark green, unbraided jackets and grey trousers, with light blue collar, cuffs, shoulder straps and trouser stripes. Buttons were white metal. Officers had black hussar braid on their green dolmans jackets.

Equipment for both portions of the regiment was the same - Prussian-style shako with death's head badge in silver and a black, falling horsehair plume. Belts were black and knapsacks were light brown, decorated with the white horse of Hanover.

There was also a regiment of Brunswick Hussars serving on the Mediterranean coast, which was uniforms in 'classic' Brunswick style; in black, with light blue collar and cuffs.